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Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx Head Coach

On the Game 3 loss:

“It’s no question we saw things that have to be fixed to be competitive in Game 4. We have all done this for a long time. You win games, you lose games, and you figure out how to put it behind you. The best way, for me as a coach, is to watch the video and take action steps from there. Players are resilient; they have short term memories which are great. Coaches, we will stew about it until the ball gets tipped up and we have something else to think about.”

On the mood of the team:

“[We are] disappointed. I think anytime you lay an egg in the WNBA Finals, it doesn’t feel very good. At the same time, we understand the nice thing is that the series is not over. We want to put Indiana in a situation for Game 4 – they have to win the game, they don’t want to come back to Minnesota. That’s one of the first things out of my mouth. We are going to do our best to bring them back to Minnesota.”

On if she wants the team to remember the loss enough that they don’t let it happen again:

“Yes. You are the point in the season that you shouldn’t have to say, ‘Hey, we don’t want that feeling again.’ There are a lot of things that went into play, in that game that led to the way that we looked, and I am confident that those issues will not be there for Game 4.”

On the Lynx leadership:

“I feel blessed to walk in this morning and be in front of the players that I have. [We have] great leadership, great resolve, tremendous players. I like our chances.”

Seimone Augustus, Minnesota Lynx Guard

On whether the Lynx need to carry Game 3 in their mind as motivation:
“We don’t want to remember any of last night. Nothing went our way last night. What we do want to bottle up is the energy and intensity that the second group, the bench players, came in and played with. We’ve got to come in knowing that Indiana is going do everything in their power to try end it here and not go back to Minnesota, and we have to do everything in our power to get it back to Minnesota [for a Game 5].”

On Minnesota Coach Cheryl Reeve’s comment that Indiana might have more pressure on them entering Game 4:
“It’s a little bit of pressure both ways. Of course, we’ve got the obvious pressure: if we don’t play these next 40 minutes as best we can, our season is over. And for them, being in this situation in 2009 and being in a similar situation now, to have to relive that would be disappointing for them.”

On whether the physical nature of Game 3 might put the Lynx back on their heels in Game 4:
“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. I’m not making any excuses. You’ve still got to go out and play the game, and the referees are still going to make their calls. They have just as hard a job as we do as far as going out and performing; they have to make sure they control the game. But what we can’t do isnotbe aggressive. We’ve got to go out there and be aggressive and see how they make those calls and see how the game is going to be played.

On whether she is a better player with her back against the wall:
“I don’t know, maybe. I don’t like being in that situation. I’d rather be up right now in the series instead of being down one game to two; but we’re going to play it out, give it everything we have and try to bring it back to Minnesota.”

Rebekkah Brunson, Minnesota Lynx Forward

On the mood of the team:

“We are disappointed with yesterday – that is done and over with. We can’t do anything about that. We have to be optimistic about tomorrow and being able to do what we have to do. We haven’t lost any confidence we still know what we are capable of doing – so we are just going to step on the court tomorrow and prove it.”

On what the Lynx have to do to create more offense:

“We have to be more aggressive. I think that we got a little bit passive in the things we wanted to do. We didn’t get transition going. So tomorrow we are going to try and come out and get thing going quick and not try and overthink anything or try and overanalyze and go out there and play.”

On what they do to take advantage of Indiana being down two players:

“Them being down two players has nothing to do with anything. They have been playing well without them. So it’s not like this is something new that just happened for tomorrow night. They have been playing extremely well with the team that they have and they are going to play that way tomorrow.”

Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Minnesota Lynx Forward/Center

On how the team rebounds from the Game 3 loss:

“Easily, we play in the WNBA. Even if we had won, we don’t take that game into the next game. It was a hard game and a loss is a loss. At the end of the game or end of the season there are no asterisks, if you win by 30 or if you win by one – it’s a just a win. We got to the Finals winning by one. You win, you win. We recover. We slept, the sun came out this morning, not a lot of it, but we woke up and moved on because we’re still able to play tomorrow. We’re pretty happy we get to play tomorrow and not have to wait another three days for a game.”

On whether it is more difficult coming back from a larger margin of defeat:

“When you get beat like that what can you say, you just didn’t play hard. I don’t know how that will change anything, we’re still playing and that is important enough. That is the only thing that matters that we play a Game 4 tomorrow. We’re actually on a better end than they are because they have six players and we have 11. Our starters didn’t even play in the fourth quarter. Come Sunday we’ll be rested and ready to go.”

Maya Moore, Minnesota Lynx Forward

On the Lynx performance in Game 3:

“It is always disappointing when you don’t perform up to your potential. We’re going to stay confident and stay together. I think that is the most important thing, out of all the games we’ve played this year that was probably one of the few games we were disconnected, both on the offensive end and on the defensive end. We just need to get back to who we are. There are several little things we want to continue to focus on that we will.”

On Indiana’s Game 3 dribble penetration:

“Dribble penetration is always something that we don’t want to happen where they get to the heart of your defense. Indiana is very good at that, penetrating and kicking, so we’ll work on making that difficult for them and really locking in even more is going to be huge for us tomorrow.”

On whether the Fever are more problematic without Katie Douglas:

“I don’t think it changes who they are. They’re still Indiana, they’re still going to try and be aggressive and get the 3-point shooters open by penetrating.”

On what the Lynx not losing back-to-back games often can be attributed to:

“The toughness of this team and us not wanting to go down without a fight. Just playing as who we are and getting back to that. That is who we’ve tried to be all season and we’ve got leaders that won’t let this team fall and get into that habit. It is a good thing for us. It is one game, we put ourselves in a position for an elimination game but the season isn’t over, we still have an opportunity to win and all we’re thinking about is tomorrow.”

Lindsay Whalen, Minnesota Lynx Guard

On the Lynx game plan and how they can better execute it in Game 4:

“That was a big key. We need to be coming out with a little more aggressive mindset and mentality. You wish you weren’t saying that in the Finals that you have to get up there and be more intense and be more on the ball but we need to have that. Good thing for us because we have another game tomorrow night to come out here and do better. We have a good opportunity to come out and play better tomorrow night

On what the team talked about in the locker room after Game 3:

“The fourth quarter we really turned things around. Candice (Wiggins) did well, Erin (Thorn), (Devereaux Peters) really came in, Monica (Wright) gave us some great minutes and really turned things around for us. That was really good for us.”

On the fourth quarter:

“That was great. That showed what can happen when a team turns up the aggression, turns up the intensity and really gets after it. That is what you need to do.”

On playing in front of a sellout Indiana Fever crowd:

“You just have to come out and understand that you need a better mindset and better mentality in handling that. It was a great atmosphere, so fun to play in that but we have to do a better job of going out and just playing, not thinking too much. We’ll come out tomorrow and we’ll be ready to go. We’ve had a chance to think about it for a while now and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”